To student outcry, U of T approves flat fee
Policy will apply to students taking three to six classes, starting 2011
In a move that student groups are calling a cash grab, the University of Toronto has approved a plan to charge a flat fee in the school’s faculty of arts and science. This means students will be charged the same amount to take three classes as they would pay to take five.
“Flat tuition fee structures are nothing but a repulsively unethical band-aid solution to the persistent underfunding of Ontario universities,” said Sandy Hudson, president of the U of T students’ union, in a press release issued yesterday. “Our university has let the government off the hook, at the expense of thousands of students.”
The university, which is the country’s largest, will not implement the increase until 2011, and a spokesperson for the school says current students will not be affected. The new fee will be phased in gradually, which means that new arts and science students on the school’s St. George campus will be charged for five courses, even if they take four.
The U of T students’ union is calling the policy “regressive” and has filed a lawsuit against the university in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice in an attempt to fight the change.
“The University has lost over $1.3 billion in risky investments this year,” said Adam Awad, union vice-president of university affairs. “This transfer of debt from the public university to individual students is unethical and will impede access to post-secondary education.”
The fee change is intended to encourage students to take as many classes as possible, according to the university, and will also apply to students taking six courses. Because the provincial government pays universities for each course taught, not per student, the policy is aimed at generating between $8 to 14 million in additional government funding every year.
In The Toronto Star, arts and science dean Meric Gertler praised the move as a way to help bail out a faculty facing a deficit of $5 million to $7 million a year. He also noted students already pay a similar flat fee in U of T’s’ departments of music, physical education, computer science and commerce.
The school says it will be emailing thousands of prospective students about the fee change before the May 28 acceptance deadline, and says it has set aside $1.5 million of extra financial aid for students who can’t afford the new fee.
Actually the huge cash grab flat tution fee will start this fall (2009). In 2011 the Faculty and Unversity is suppose to review the impact on students.
Hi Terry,
Actually, the plan is being phased in. So the first group of students who will have to pay a flat fee will be next year’s class of first-year arts and science students who are taking four courses instead of five.
In 2011, the school will broaden the policy to include students who are taking three OR four courses instead of five. U of T also says it will issue a report before 2011 that will analyze how well/badly the program is doing. Although I’m pretty sure we can guess what they’ll find.
Thanks for your interest,
Karen
U of T is repulsive. People should finally start taking it for what it is – a university with above average grad opportunities but below average undergrad opportunities, not to mention a university which has no respect for its student body.
I am no longer familiar with U of T, but in general, I can only see this move to a set rate for fees as a desperate move to ‘nickel and dime’ the students out of an education, to cover the Universitie’s expenses. I know, from my hometown’s university, that poor management and ‘grand-standing’ has become more important than the actual purpose of the university,…to teach. Buildings with no instructors, only 1/2 of the programs in the calendar end up actually being offered, ‘fancy this and that’ and a lot of ‘hot air’ around newly, ‘hap-hazardly’ created faculties. Build something big and ugly and unsubstantial, but what about the students? It is a very sad comment on our society on the whole and in particularly, the universities and the ministry, when an education becomes a luxury. The old saying, ‘children are our future’ should be blazoned across the entrance to every school, university and government office, so someone might start to remember that education is about MORE that money and should NOT be a luxury, but a ‘right’, regardless of social strata, Students, NOT buildings, etc., should come FIRST and not be ‘hung out to dry’ over every penny that these universities waste and mismanage. ‘Mark my words’, a dark time is coming when our flippant attitude towards our children’s education will come back to ‘haunt’ us!